Cardboard cops on patrol in Bangalore

The Indian city of Bangalore has begun using cardboard cut-outs of police officers to scare motorists into obeying traffic rules.

A lethal combination of poor law enforcement, untrained drivers and bad roads makes India one of the world's leading countries in road deaths.

Many drivers will only obey traffic rules if they think police will reach out and apprehend them "and we can't be omnipresent", Bangalore police commissioner MA Saleem said.

"Drivers in Indian cities violate traffic rules when there are no cops around - they jump traffic lights and go the wrong way on one-way streets.

"These cut-out cops are very effective and they can be on the job seven days a week."

Such lifesize flatpack cut-outs are frequently used in places like Britain and North America as a crime prevention measure, but Mr Saleem said he believed it was the first time such an idea had been employed in Indian cities.

So far, three khaki-clad cardboard policemen have been deployed on major roads in the city, known as the home of India's flagship outsourcing industry.

One cardboard policeman was stolen last week but that has not discouraged Mr Saleem, who said the fake policemen will now be removed when it is dark to reduce chances of theft.

He said he plans to install 10 more cardboard police on Bangalore's roads.

Drivers say the cut-outs are effective.

"Two or three times we thought it was a real policeman standing there and we slowed down," one driver told India's NDTV.